Having examined the life of Noah L Babbs (3-2-4) we move to his brother William Lane Babbs (3-2-6) who is also the father of the man we are currently tracking, “Alexander #2”.
What we already knew
The story as we understand it is that William’s father John Babbs (3-2) volunteered with the military in 1776. He fought in the war and when he was discharged, he took up residence in Annapolis and married Anne McCubbin in 1780. By 1789 he married Rebecca Lane in Frederick County, VA (no record for this event is on file).
John and his spouse had at least 6 children between 1790 and 1800. The birth location of the first 3 and 5th child are unknown, but #4 Noah L Babbs and #6 William Lane Babbs are said to have been born in Hampshire County, VA (Now West Virginia).
There is a big gap in the records, and we next pick the family up in 1818 near Cincinnati, Hamilton, Ohio when his military pension is approved. We can track that this is the correct John because of the regiment he served in matches perfectly.
By 1820 John (3-2) lived in Randolph County, Indiana for the US Census. He still lived there in 1830 and sometime between then and 1844 he moved to live with his daughter in Ripley County, Indiana where he died.
Like Noah (3-2-4), William (3-2-6) claimed to have been born in Hampshire County, Virginia (now West Virginia) on 09 Jan 1800 to John Babbs (3-2) and Rebecca Lane. However, as I looked through the information available to me in Jean A. Sargent’s collected papers and her book series, I found little to no information about this connection. Nothing is available on Ancestry or Family Search Records for this county.
But that didn’t stop me! I’m a Babb, I quit when I’m done!
I turned to a secondary source of information on Family Search which is the information that is available in their Catalog. This information is organized by location and as one would suspect the county wasn’t keeping birth or death records in this timeframe. This information was largely on microfilm and while it has been digitized, the tools are only now becoming available for AI to read old handwriting samples. The tech is still new, but Family Search intends to use them on more than 1 billion records in the next couple of years. Until then, we search manually.
I filtered for records available for Hampshire County, WV (which was in Virginia at the time the records were collected). As was no surprise, they weren’t keeping birth or death records in that timeframe.
But what they did keep was Tax Records! What I found shocked me, and it told a much broader story than I had expected. This is going to take me a few posts to sort out all that I’ve found here. So, please bear with me.
In the 1790s, Hampshire County (which is now part of West Virginia) maintained personal property tax lists. These records provide valuable insights into the financial and property status of individuals during that time. Here are the typical details captured in these tax lists:
- Name of Person Taxed or Tithed: The tax lists recorded the names of individuals subject to taxation. This included both property owners and those who were tithed (meaning they were required to pay a tax based on their personal circumstances).
- Type and Amount of Taxable Property: The lists specified the type of property owned by each individual and its assessed value. Taxable property could include land, livestock, slaves, household goods, and other possessions.
- Amount of Tax: The tax amount levied on each person was calculated based on the value of their taxable property. Different types of property were taxed at varying rates.
- County Statistics: The tax lists also provided aggregate data for the county, such as the total tax revenue collected, the number of taxpayers, and other relevant information.
Source: Microsoft Copilot
These records aren’t indexed, but they are sorted by the first letter of the last name. So, there are only 2-3 pertinent pages per record year. I’ll come back to this in a minute, but first let’s set the stage for what we already know about William’s father John.
Enter, the Tax Records!
Here is the complete set with comments to follow:
Analysis
1790
The first year that Babbs appear in Hampshire County, is 1790. In that record we see a Thomas Babs with one person (read free white male) over the age of 16 in the household. Thomas has 2 horses that he was taxed on.
Now, we’re looking for John Babbs. But he isn’t showing up yet. We don’t yet know John’s father’s name, so that was my first thought. However, let’s work through that. We first need to eliminate any other Thomas’ from the tree. In the tree, there is only one Thomas who would have been at least 21 years old in 1790 and that could only be Thomas Babbs (3-3-2) (1768-1852). Thomas is the son of James Babbs (3-3) & Delila Porter.
However, Thomas is known to have been in Anne Arundel County (read Annapolis), MD in 1768 and again in 1800.
1791
In 1791 we see the exact same information for Thomas.
1792
In 1792 we see John Babs and William Babs. William has two males over the age of 16 in the household.
John (3-2) is the father of Noah (3-2-4) and William Lane (3-2-6) (who aren’t born yet). The other William Babbs would have to be William Babb (3-1) (1737-1829). We can’t be certain which of William’s sons lived with him at this point as he had 4 children that were already 16 at this point.
Let’s stop here. What you have just seen is something that Jean A. Sargent (my predecessor) was unable to connect in her lifetime. The records didn’t exist where she was looking for them and hid until just now.
We have just seen a 3-1, a 3-2 and a 3-3 in the same secondary location. Thus, we no longer need to assume that these families were related. We know that they are related.
To find the same family units moving to a new location equates a relationship. This also happens to be the foundation of the Travis Theorem that I’m pursuing. However, in this case we are readily able to see the results in just 3 years of tax records.
But wait! There’s more!
On the next page we again find Thomas (3-3) with Henry Babs. Poor Henry has no horse. Thomas is also down to 1 horse. It must have been a rough year.
We have no Henry in the family tree, so he is a new discovery. As he showed up with Thomas to pay his taxes, we can assume that he is immediate family of Thomas. If Henry was at least 16 years old in 1792, he would have been born on or before 1776 (yeah, that year). This would mean he is likely the younger brother of Thomas.
Thus, I have assigned Henry the number 3-3-4.
1793
In 1793 we see on one page, on the next with William (3-1) and Charles (3-1-4). Beal Babs (3-1-1) is on the following page adjacent to a series of Beale’s (surname) who all paid their taxes on the same day. This might be a clue as to where his name originates.
John Babs (3-2)
Thomas Babs (3-3-2)
Another Thomas Babbs (There is no one in the tree that fits this description). He would have to be a son or brother of William (3-1) as John (3-2) is younger than the others and James (3-3) is the father of the Thomas (3-3-2). Since there are no other records predating this one, I’m placing him as William’s son which will make this Thomas 3-1-9. He does happen to appear near William (3-1) and brother Charles (3-1-4)
Beal Babbs (3-1-1)
1794
In 1794 we see additional evidence of the family unit. For the first time they are listed as Babbs (with 2 Bs). We have William (3-1), Charles (3-1-4) & Beal Babs (3-1-1) together.
There is also a similarly named family on the following page. The handwriting is from a different person, but it appears to say Beatis, but that same author crossed their Ts. So, it is likely a variation of the surname Beale(s). Regardless, we have no people in the tree that match a different John, Robert, Levy or Charles.
The next page confuses/messes/clears this up with John Babes (3-2) next to George Baltis (sp?) who was rich with 6 horses! There is no George that we know of in this family tree.
1795
In 1795 we find William (3-1), John (3-2), Charles (3-1-4), Beal (3-1-1) on the same page.
1796 (No folder Cover for this year in the attachment above)
Same story, second verse.
1797
Could get better, could get worse.
1798
Trifecta!
1799 (taken 31 October 1799)
John no longer appears and seems to have been replaced by a Joseph (3-1-3). Where did Joseph come from? He would be the son of William (3-1). Somehow this Joseph made it to Lancaster, Fairfield, OH by 1804), which just so happens to be on the outskirts of Cincinnati, OH.
Of note is that this last Tax List has an actual date on it of 31 Oct 1799. Going back to the claim that Noah (3-2-6) and William Lane (3-2-4) were born in Hampshire County, VA/WV we can call that Plausible and likely Confirmed. The only hesitation is that their father John (3-2) doesn’t appear on this last Tax Roll. For Noah this is fully confirmed.
William Lane stated that he was born on 09 Jan 1800. We will see in the next post further confirmation of this fact. This also means that we can identify the Place of birth for Hannah (3-2-5), the sister who was born between these two sons.
Wow that was a lot!
To summarize, after this review of a small period of Hampshire County history, it is clear that we no longer have to wonder about the connectivity of the three top level people in this tree.
There has never been a clear line of sight to John Babbs (3-2) parents. But we can no longer wonder IF the earliest Green Men of Maryland Babbs families are related. They are all absolutely related.
We only need wonder who the father of John Babbs (3-2) is. However, I believe that I have that answer.
But before we get to that there is a rock, we haven’t turned over yet. Hampshire County, VA/WV hasn’t turned over all of its information.
In my next post, I’ll use new records to bring more context to our Babbs.
3 responses to “William Lane Babbs – This Changes Everything”
“The story as we understand it is that William’s father John Babbs (3-2) volunteered with the military in 1776. He fought in the war and when he was discharged, he took up residence in Annapolis and married Anne McCubbin in 1780. By 1789 he married Rebecca Lane in Frederick County, VA (no record for this event is on file).” I have questions about the following: London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 There is another Rebecca Lane (married name) with John Lane Name Rebecca Lane Gender Female Record Type Baptism Baptism Date 6 Aug 1784 Baptism Place St Alfege, Greenwich, Kent, England Father John Lane Mother Rebecca Lane would mother of Noah L Babbs have been baptized that many years after birth in 1770 or is 1770 an accurate birthdate for her?
I don’t know that I’m ready to jump “the pond” on this one yet. I first want to research the Lanes of Frederick Co, VA & Hampshire Co, WV/VA. I think there is more on our shores to learn about before we try to make that connection.
As for Noah, it could happen that he would be baptized as an adult depending on which religion he subscribed to. You mentioned Presbyterian, but I’m not sure what their practices were in that timeframe.
I do think that Religion is going to play a key role in sorting the wheat from the chafe. The Lions of the Sea were mostly Quakers and that helps with the correlation of the families. The Bavarian Babbs were Lutheran and that also helps. But I don’t recall seeing any details of the MD or VA/NC Babbs religion. If you have any data on where any of these people attended church it could be a keystone.
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